So tomorrow I will be moving to my host family/village for training. I will be living in the village of Dialokonoboro(or something like that). I will be training in Bambara for sure now which is great since it is one of the biggest languages here in Mali, and has versions of the same language around west Africa, so for business purposes and foreign service, it is a good language to learn. I am a little nervous about the whole ordeal, but I think that I may be psyching myself out a little, only time will tell. I feel it will be awkward for a couple of weeks, until everything gets adjusted and use to things.
On an interesting note, I bought bleach today to add to my water. It is weird to purposely drink bleach, but it will be diluted enough I guess. It cost 175 CFA which is roughly 35 cents, I gave the guy 200 CFA and since he didn't have change, I let him keep the 25 CFA (5 cents) and he was so excited and grateful. It is astonishing on how cheap everything is here and how appreciative things are. I got paid 90000 CFA (180 dollars) for walk around money, although I don't have to pay for food or housing for the next 9 weeks. This may not seem like a lot but the average Malian only makes 15000 CFA (30 dollars) a month, and they have to pay for everything :(... Yesterday, I bought Malian fabric that cost 10000 CFA (20 dollars) which is enough to make a 3 piece outfit and it was hand printed and dyed by a woman's association here in Mali; this type of fabric would normally cost 20 dollars or more a yard in the USA. I bought this fabric to be tailored in my town to have as a ceremonial outfit for my Swearing-In.
I will not have the internet for the next 2 weeks so I will update then. It will be an adventurous one so we will see what happens, keep posted.
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